John Whitmore

City of Denton, Texas

You could say John Whitmore grew up cleaning pools. As a boy in Southern California, his parents put in a backyard swimming pool and though he had six siblings, he became responsible for cleaning and maintaining it. By
the time he was a teenager and a member of his high school swimming
and water polo teams, Whitmore had come under the wing of a local
pool service technician.

His first full-time job in aquatics was for the city of La Mesa,
Calif., east of San Diego. Since then, Whitmore has gone on to
become the organizational development manager for the city of
Denton, Texas. He received NRPA Southwest Region’s Fellow
Award in 2009, NRPA’s Exceptional Aquatic Service Award in
1998, and NRPA’s Gold Medal of Aquatics with two different
agencies, the city of Denton and APEX Park and Recreation district,
outside of Denver.

Whitmore also is the immediate past president of the National Recreation and Park
Association’s Aquatic Branch. He serves as chief
instructor trainer for NRPA’s Aquatic Facility Operator
course, which he helped to develop. It officially launched in the
early 1990s.

As with the AFO course, Whitmore’s goal as NRPA Aquatics
Branch president focused on education. He has been instrumental in
“professionalizing” the industry. “One of the
things that has always plagued aquatics is that stigma that
we’re not ‘professionals,’” he noted.

As a leader in the industry, he has made it his mission to help
aquatics facility operators — and the parks and recreation
directors under whom they serve — to see the value in
training and continued education.

“[As a result of the VGB Act], I can’t tell you how
many parks and recreation directors called me to ask why they
didn’t know about it and what training their aquatics
professionals need,” he says. “We’re trying to
take advantage of that and provide them more of a strategic
view.”

Most recently, that strategic view has centered on economics. Given
the current recession, Whitmore is helping lead the industry toward
more business-minded operations. His focus, he says, is on
“the strategic need of aquatics professionals to show the
return on investment of their facilities and programs to their
communities.”

To help aquatics operators understand that message and relate to
leaders in dollars-and-cents terms, Whitmore plans to continue
speaking at industry conferences and sharing his experience. He
says creating a culture of trust and empowering people through
honest and direct personal contact are two key factors that have
enabled him to create an award-winning facility, and ultimately
change the industry.